Street Corner Secrets

Svati P. Shah is Assistant Professor in the Department of Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

• Preface ix Acknowledgments xiii Introduction 1 1. Day Wage Labor and Migration: Making Ends Meet 41 2. Sex, Work, and Silence from the Construction of Workers' Naka 77 3. Sex Work and the Street 113 4. Red-Light Districts, Rescue, and Real Estate 147 Conclusion. Agency, Livelihoods, and Spaces 189 Notes 207 Bibliography 231 Index 247

"Street Corner Secrets is a nuanced ethnographic exploration of lives of poor migrant women who are part of the urban informal economy in the Indian metropolis of Mumbai…. [T]his book is a significant contribution to making sense of the place of sex work in the lives of poor migrant women in urban India." - Anjua Agrawal (American Anthropologist) "Based on critical ethnography, archival research, and discourse analysis, Svati Shah makes an important intervention in the ongoing feminist debates on sex work... Shah provides in this book... a much needed focus on the political economy of sexual commerce." - Manisha Desai (Gender & Society) "Overall, this book’s ethnography makes a vibrant contribution to urban anthropology. Crafting an understanding of sexual labour that reflects the intricacies of rural-urban migration, the book sheds light on the management of knowledge around sex work, from secrecy to the rehabilitation of 'rescued' prostitutes, and shows how spaces occupied by women sex workers have multiple uses and meanings in Mumbai’s contested urban landscape."  - Atreyee Sen (Pacific Affairs) "Svati P. Shah’s new book Street Corner Secrets makes an important contribution to ongoing debates around sex work in India.... Multi-sited urban ethnography alongside meticulous participant observation, provides a fascinating insight into Shah’s participants." - Rohit Dasgupta (Royal Society for Asian Affairs) "Street Corner Secrets offers a window into the narrow field of livelihood options that poor, migrant women navigate in urban India and, importantly, provides a much-needed model for ending the analytic exceptionalism of sex work." - Lauren Wilks (Sociology) "Within activist circles, global feminist discourse, and academic conversations surrounding gender and agency, sex work has often been framed as an exceptional space of disempowerment, trafficking, and exploitation. Svati P. Shah’s beautifully engaged ethnography, Street Corner Secrets, challenges this narrative by attending to the material landscape of rural labor migration to Mumbai....This text will appeal to scholars in anthropology, sociology, gender and sexuality studies, labor studies, urban studies, human rights, and South Asia studies, as well as upper-division undergraduate and graduate courses invested in similar disciplines." - Maura Finkelstein (GLQ) "Street Corner Secrets is a compelling exploration of the intersections between space, society, and sex work. It is a thorough and fascinating text for readers who are interested in topics that range from the political economies of space, to the precariousness of informal labor, to debates over sexual commerce. . . . [The] clear, accessible style is appropriate for newcomers and seasoned scholars alike. Svati Shah’s reflexive ethnography is engaged, feminist anthropology at its best." - Cara Snyder (Society & Space)